In modern clinical settings, there is often an electronic record, e.g., an electronic medical record, associated with each patient presenting at a patient care institution, for example, a hospital or clinic. One example of such an electronic record is an electronic medical record, such as the POWERCHART application available from Cerner Corporation of North Kansas City, Miss. Electronic medical records are designed to offer a single location wherein as much information as possible relevant to the patient with whom the record is associated is readily viewable and actionable, generally by a clinician or other authorized institution personnel.
As information is manually entered into a patient's medical record, or the medical record is automatically populated based on information received from an associated system, events directly affecting the patient's schedule, for instance, tasks, may be generated. “Tasks” are generally used by a clinician or other care giver and serve as reminders that something was, or is, to be done for a particular patient, as well as what was, or is, to be done. That is, “tasks” are typically reminders to the clinician that, for instance, a medication was, or is, to be given, a vital sign was, or is, to be checked, data was, or is, to be collected, a procedure was, or is, to be performed, or the like. Tasks generally have a time associated therewith which may be a particular instance in time or may indicate that the task is continuous, e.g., an IV medication administered over a period of several hours, and specify only an initiation time and/or monitoring time. Alternatively, if desired, a time associated with a task may indicate that a task is to be performed only as needed (i.e., PRN).
Tasks are typically generated from clinical orders and specify, with particularity, what is to be done for a patient. Thus, if an order states that a patient is to receive four 20 mg doses of medication X, one dose every three hours beginning at 12:00 pm, four tasks may be generated for the patient: a first task at 12:00 pm, a second tasks at 3:00 pm, a third task at 6:00 pm, and a fourth task at 9:00 pm, each task indicating that 20 mg of medication X are to be administered.
While this information is generally viewable by the clinician and other authorized institution personnel, the electronic medical record is typically not made available to the patient for viewing. Thus, referring back to the above-described example, although the order setting forth the administration schedule of medication X is known to relevant institution personnel, the patient remains unaware that s/he has particular events scheduled throughout his or her day at 12:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm, and 9:00 pm. In fact, the patient may not be aware that the medication administration has been scheduled for a particular time until the appropriate institution personnel arrives at his or her room to carry out the administration.
This overall unawareness of what is to take place throughout the day can make patients feel out of control and detached from the care they are receiving. In-patient stays in clinical institutions can be nerve-wracking experiences for many individuals and simple knowledge of what's to come in the next few hours can aid dramatically in easing a patient's mind. Further, when unaware of their daily schedules, patients often do not feel at ease to schedule events of their own. For instance, if a particular friend or family member wishes to come to the clinic and visit the patient, the patient is unaware of what might be a good time to instruct the friend or family member to arrive. Still further, if the patient wishes to take a nap or spend some time reading a new book, s/he may get five minutes into it only to find out something else has been scheduled for the same time frame. Events such as this can be extremely frustrating and contribute to overall discontent with a patient's stay at the institution.
Another source of patient discontent with in-patient stays in clinical institutions is often the meal selection process, or lack thereof. Typically, meal planning is minimally integrated into the overall in-patient care continuum. Rather, meal planning is primarily a manual process with little to ensure safety as a primary care concern, that is, with little to validate meal orders against an in-patient's relevant medical information. For instance, a in-patient who is not permitted to participate in his or her meal selection may be lactose intolerant and yet offered only milk as a lunch beverage. This causes the in-patient to have to contact the appropriate personnel to get the milk taken away and something else brought to them. Often times this exchange is not associated with the in-patient's electronic record and, accordingly, when the dinner meal is delivered, the same process must take place.
Alternatively, an in-patient who is permitted to participate in his or her meal selection may choose a menu item that, unbeknownst to them, is contra-indicated due to a particular medication the in-patient may be taking. In this instance, delivery of the chosen menu item selection could have serious consequences to the in-patient.
Accordingly, a system and method which permits an in-patient to actively participate in his or her meal selection and which associates those meal choices with the in-patient's electronic record would be desirable. Additionally, a system and method which verifies an in-patient's meal selections against the in-patient's relevant medical information would be advantageous.